Mortal Kombat For Sega Genesis

Street Fighter 2 was the granddaddy of fighting games. It gave way to the rise of the fighting game genre and many game companies started to make fighting games to cash in on this opportunity. Among them was Midway. Midway had their own version of Street Fighter and it was much more realistic and less cartoony than Street Fighter.Just think of it as a much more violent version complete with blood and decapitation.

The game has seven main characters. First is Johnny Cage who is a Hollywood actor with martial arts skills. His primary attacks are the green flame, split punch and shadow kick. Second is Kano who is the leader of a crime syndicate called Black Dragon. His face is covered in metal and he has the ability to emit laser beams. His primary attacks are the knife throw and the cannonball attack. Subzero is a masked assassin who descended from the cryomancers and could control ice. His primary atacks are the freeze attack and slide. Sonya was an operative in a special forces unit of the United States military. She was chasing Kano to the island where Tsang Tsung's tournament was being held.She was captured and forced to compete. Her primary attacks are the ring toss, square wave flight and leg grab. Rayden is the immortal thunder god who protects the Earthrealm. His primary attacks are the lightning throw, the teleport and the superman move. Liu Kang is a Shaolin monk dedicated to protecting the Earthrealm. His primary attacks are the fireball and flying kick. Scorpion was formerly Hanzo Hasashi, an assassin. He was killed by Subzero and returned as a spectre to avenge his death. He succeeded in his mission. His primary attacks are the Van Dam spear and the teleport.

The game itself is a tournament wherein you battle all the combatants including your own character in a mirror match. You then face Goro in the final battle. You also have bonus rounds wherein you try to test your strength in breaking blocks of different materials such as wood, stone, steel, ruby and diamond. You also get to play in various stages which provides an additional attraction.

Overall, the game is fun and very simple to play. The amount of violence in the game was a come on during its heyday as it was cutting edge and nobody else did it. The blood and fatality moves were very much controversial back then. The replay value is good as you could always try to challenge yourself in making more flawless victories and you could always fight other human opponents. The graphics and sound were excellent during the 16 bit era. Even today, the game would still be fun to play with.